Memo To Us Weekly: Stay Out Of The Review Biz

Us Weekly had better try and make themselves more credible in the reviews department. In their latest issue, the mag rates Mariah Carey’s ‘Charmbracelet’, Jennifer Lopez’s ‘This Is Me… Then’, Whitney Houston’s ‘Just Whitney’, and Shania Twain’s ‘Up!’ all a publicist-safe 3 out of 4 stars. Meanwhile, their less-than credible movie rating department ironically gives Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Maid in Manhattan’ a 3 star “J.Lo cleans up” review, and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Tower’ a 4 star “stirring and spectacular” review, after both J.Lo and the ‘LOTR’ stars had features in the mag. Meanwhile, ‘About Schmidt’, voted best picture of 2002 on Saturday by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, but not given features in the mag, was given only 2 1/2 stars, calling it “too snarky.”